SpaceX’s first astronaut mission could take off in May
SpaceX is getting very close to its goal of flying actual astronauts aboard its Crew Dragon spacecraft. After a successful in-flight abort (IFA) test in January, it had basically crossed off all the major milestones needed before flying people, first on a demonstration mission referred to as “Demo-2” by SpaceX and its commercial crew partner NASA.
We now know the working date that SpaceX is aiming for with that crucial mission: May 7. To be clear, that’s very much a working date and the actual mission could slip either later, or even earlier, according to Ars Technica’s Eric Berger who first reported the timeline.
It will be exciting when the United States regains the capability to send humans to orbit and to the ISS.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 10 2020, @11:03PM (9 children)
the first real porno in space
(Score: 1, Troll) by DannyB on Monday February 10 2020, @11:09PM (8 children)
Unlikely. I don't think Trump is physically fit for a launch into space.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 5, Funny) by c0lo on Monday February 10 2020, @11:40PM (2 children)
Oh, wow, good news. By all means, do it! (large grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday February 11 2020, @06:32PM
The orange glow should enhance beautiful sunsets.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday February 12 2020, @04:48PM
I just realized.
Launching Trump into space is the justification for continued development of SLS.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 11 2020, @12:46AM
He said PORNO not POTUS. There's a fine line between the two. One heads your screwing, the other is screwing your head.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Tuesday February 11 2020, @02:27AM
Get a bigger blender. :-)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday February 11 2020, @02:48AM (2 children)
Do you have to send all of him?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 11 2020, @03:13AM
Just his hair. It probably came from there in the first place.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday February 11 2020, @03:45AM
Yes. But the user requirements ("Trump: physically fit for a launch into space") don't constrain that much the solution, there's enough room for optimization.
For instance, shaping him in a spherical form and freezing him solid just before will guarantee fitness for launch and the only collateral damage will be felt in the Twitter traffic (a thing the user didn't consider important enough to explicitly list it as a requirement).
(large grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 11 2020, @01:08AM (4 children)
Nobody seems to know what this "Demo-2" launch is even going to do. Are they just going to take astronauts up into orbit and land them again? That isn't very useful, we already know the rocket can do that. But NASA doesn't seem to want to commit to actually using the mission to transport actual crew to the actual ISS.
Are they stalling for time so they can arrange for Boeing to be the first to actually deliver crew? Better buy some more Soyuz tickets if so.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday February 11 2020, @03:48AM (2 children)
That's all it can be said based on the public knowledge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Informative) by barbara hudson on Tuesday February 11 2020, @04:13AM (1 child)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday February 11 2020, @04:25AM
Well, about that " bring them back at some point"... look, "bringing back" is not the hard part. It is the uniqueness of the point that's hard, human payloads are not quite amenable to sprinkling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday February 11 2020, @04:08PM
Per the contract and subsequent press releases, the flight will launch Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on a trajectory to rendezvous with the ISS where the spacecraft will automatically dock and the crew will join the current ISS expedition. The spacecraft and crew are scheduled to return to Earth for a soft splashdown after 14 days.
There was some discussion of extending the mission length to allow this mission to serve as a full crew rotation, but that hasn't been confirmed.
</fact><opinion>
If the mission was going to be extended it likely would have leaked by now. A lot of planning goes into stuff like that, and it's not something you change a few months before go. The ISS crew rotation will fly on the April 9 Soyuz instead.